It was 6 o’ clock in the morning when someone rang the doorbell. It was Mr. Ahluwalia. Mr. Ahluwalia was a person who could come anytime at your house for having tea. It could be 2.00 am, could be 4.00 am, it could be anytime. Today, without even asking why he had come we told him to sit and wait till we made tea. But Mr. Ahluwalia refused to have tea. He said that he had come to invite us for his special tea party and he told us to remember that it was ‘Special’. We asked him what was so special about this tea party and he said that we would soon know when we attend his party. He gave us the invitation card and requested us once again to attend his party before leaving our house. We were all shocked that Mr. Ahluwalia was giving a tea party. Mr. Ahluwalia could mix anything inside the tea and then drink it as well. Last time when he came to our house at 3.15 am he mixed the pichkoo tomato sauce inside his tea.

We were not sure of the party timings as Mr. Ahluwalia had written simply 5.30 in the invitation card, without mentioning whether he wanted the tea party in the morning or in the evening. Mr. Ahluwalia’s tea party could be either at 5.30 am or at 5.30 pm because Mr. Ahluwalia had no time management. So we rang him up and asked him the party timings. Thankfully, the party was at 5.30 pm!

We were getting ready for the party when Mr. Ahluwalia called to say that the party was beginning at 9.00 pm. He also said that he would be serving us dinner as well. We went at 9.00 pm to his house but except Mr. Ahluwalia no one was there. We asked him why there were no other guests present. He replied that they had all gone home. We were puzzled but, still sat and waited for the tea. When Mr. Ahluwalia brought the tea it appeared normal from its colour. But when we had it, we really had it! We asked him what was in the tea. He said, with an innocent smile on his face, that he had mixed pudine ki chatni and sarson ka saag with some water.

We did not feel hungry after having the tea. We made an excuse and returned to our house. All of us could not sleep that night and we made a promise to ourselves that we would never go for Mr. Ahluwalia’s tea party again!